Sheriff David Clarke May Be Trump's Most Appalling Appointment to Date

An inquest jury recommended that seven employees of the jail be criminally charged.

Clarke, a tough-talking, conservative firebrand recognized by his penchant for cowboy hats, announced the appointment during an interview with a local Wisconsin radio station Wednesday afternoon.

DHS spokeswoman Jenny Burke says those appointments are made by the Homeland Security secretary and are announced only when they've been made official.

The Office of State and Local Law Enforcement at DHS is the primary point of contact between the department and state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies in preparing and protecting against natural disasters as well as counter-terrorism efforts.

"I'm both honored and humbled to be appointed to this position by Secretary Kelly, working for the Trump administration", he said during the radio show.

In the election past year when African-Americans largely opposed Trump, Clarke, who sometimes parades down the street on horseback, courted strong criticism from fellow blacks nationally for his support for the Republican.

"Clarke is unfit for any office and should face criminal charges for the deaths and abuses at the jail", Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Milwaukee-based community organization Voces de la Frontera, said in a statement released Wednesday.

Abele said Clarke has engaged in "gratuitous name calling, insults of other public officials, questioning judges' sentences". Clarke wasn't among them.

Clarke says he's taken a job as an assistant secretary in the Homeland Security Department. He was one of few African-American speakers to endorse Donald Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. "In general the focus is on what you should be angry about, not what to like".

Tom Evenson, spokesman for Walker, said his office had not yet received a formal resignation letter from Clarke.

Abele and Clarke have always been at odds, and Abele was quick to respond to the news.

The 38-year-old man was one of four people, including the newborn of an inmate, who died last year at the jail overseen by Clarke.

The extremist sheriff also advocates treating USA citizens suspected of harboring "pro-terrorist sentiments" on social media as enemy combatants who would face arrest, the deprivation of constitutional protections and indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-Ray.